This is an update to, and continuation of, the out-of-print 9th edition of my guidebook WEEKEND ADVENTURES IN SAN FRANCISCO & NORTHERN CALIFORNIA. It consists of short chunks of travel throughout Northern California that you can easily digest. More great weekend adventures await at my BERKELEY AND BEYOND website at www.berkeleyandbeyond.com.

Monday, January 20, 2014

Fog City 1300 Battery St./The Embarcadero. Reservations advised. Glitzy with chrome and glowing with neon on the outside, this inviting diner offers a sleek Pat Kuleto-designed interior with an open kitchen and plenty of roomy booths hugging the window-lined perimeter. Because of its design and lonely location, it reminds me of that bleak painting Nighthawks by Edward Hopper (which the painter said was inspired by "a restaurant on New York's Greenwich Avenue where two streets meet"—is it coincidence that the F-car stop for this restaurant is Greenwich?), but it shakes that image with a happy roar once

you’re inside. A long V-shaped bar with seating and a communal table fill the center. Menu items are designed to be shared. We started with tasty deviled eggs topped with crunchy quinoa and a sprinkling of tiny chopped chives, satisfying flash-fried blackened Brussels sprouts in citrusy ponzu sauce with chunks of crispy Asian pear, and oven roasted-yet-crunchy baby carrots in a bed of black garlic mole. Then we shared a delicate pink-fleshed trout filet served with flavorful Arbequina olives, fingerling potatoes, and the fish’s head!—all served attractively on an Alder-wood plank. Among the plentiful other main dishes are the kitchen’s signature whole chicken roasted in the wood oven and a good old American hamburger made special with a housemade bun and smoked tomato aioli. Bread, which is toasted in the oven and served with Straus butter, costs additional. Order up a cocktail—perhaps the margarita-like Paloma--and you’re ready to rock ‘n roll (however, there’s no jukebox in this former diner). Do save room for some Straus frozen custard—I had it with (OMG!) my own little pitcher of superb egg yolk caramel sauce, but plum sauce and dark chocolate sauce are also options—or perhaps a circular portion of apple pie flavored with chilis.

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about

*Is a freelance travel writer and the author of 17 books, including
MILES OF SMILES: 101 GREAT CAR GAMES & ACTIVITIES and WEEKEND
ADVENTURES IN SAN FRANCISCO & NORTHERN CALIFORNIA. *Is the founding
publisher of Carousel Press and the editor of DREAM SLEEPS: CASTLE &
PALACE HOTELS OF EUROPE. *Has written for FamilyFun, Sunset, and
numerous other magazines, as well as for the travel sections of many
newspapers. *Has done stints as both a movie and a restaurant critic.
*Has appeared on the Today Show.*Is a member of the Society of
American Travel Writers.